TIME TO TELL IF TELESCO IS JUST TIMID OR TOM TERRIFIC

When exactly that commencement was — perhaps before the last season ended or after the Super Bowl or at the Combine — depends on whether you’re a professional scout, coach or general manager or just deranged amateur observer.

The NFL, so good at exploiting its popularity, gave us an extra week this year, too, pushing the three-day festivities back into May.

But here we are, finally, after so many lifts and jumps and interviews and throws and catches, not to mention dashes, with just a month to go.

May 8 through 10, the most important draft of Telesco’s life.

OK, so it is just his second draft as the Chargers GM and the second time he’s been in charge of any draft.

But he did well enough in his first effort last year that we have hope and did little enough in free agency this year that we have demands.

We saw what he can do, then he did pretty much nothing.

Now the pressure is on.

Was it wisdom or weakness to let the Denver Broncos win the waiver wire in March? We can’t pretend to know for sure. But it certainly left a lot to be done.

Simply put, Telesco needs to draft at least two starters on defense, plus depth on both lines and find Philip Rivers another wideout using no more than his seven picks in seven rounds.

Telesco can, of course, also still peruse the remaining free agent inventory. That may be like shopping at Ross. It may be last season’s style, might be slightly askew, but you can sometimes find something that fits perfectly.

It’s only fair to point out the Chargers picked up Sean Lissemore (via trade), Seyi Ajirotutu, Richard Marshall and Dwight Freeney between last May and the start of the 2013 season.

But Telesco did not vow in his introductory press conference or say several times since that the Chargers would “build through the scrap heap.”

Nope. The draft is how you acquire cornerstones for your franchise. That is especially true when you are unimpressed with the free agent market, which I understand to be the main reasoning why the Chargers have been so inactive thus far this offseason.

The Chargers’ challenge in this year’s draft is that they are scheduled to pick 25th in the first round, then not again until 57th and then again at 89th.

This is the first time since 2010 that their third-round pick is that late. Roundly lauded as having fared as well as any team did with their first three picks last year, the Chargers picked 11th, 38th and 76th to get D.J. Fluker, Manti Te’o and Keenan Allen.

Telesco could trade up in one of those places, as he did last year to grab Te’o seven spots before the Chargers were slated to pick. To do that, the Chargers swapped second-round picks and gave their fourth-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals.

Perhaps Telesco falls in love with someone again. But perhaps even more than last year, it could be difficult to justify giving away picks.

We only have a month to wait to see.

To this point, we must, based on his limited history, trust in Tom. But what he does in this draft will go a long way toward determining if he is remembered as Tom Terrific or Timid Tom.